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September 2013

ASBO SHOPPING PLATFORM

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Six years ago, as the President of Association of School Business Officials of Maryland and the District of Columbia, (ASBO MD & DC) one of my initiatives was to provide every Maryland public school system, District of Columbia schools, and all private and non-public schools in the Maryland/DC area with access to an on-line electronic procurement platform for schools. This "shopping" platform as it has become to be known is based on technology we have developed here in Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) and is used by our faculty and staff on a daily basis to order student and teacher supplies at significant discounts. BCPS has been a national pioneer in eProcurement. During FY 2013 BCPS processed 16,928 purchase orders valued at $6.8 million. An overall increase in orders of 38% over FY 2012. Had BCPS processed these PO’s in written form and not electronically we estimate that the administrative costs would have been $1,536,554, instead because we used electronic ordering our administrative costs were $291,838 which was a savings of $1,244,716 or (81%). Over the last 11 years BCPS has processed over 85,000 electronic orders valued at $38.7 million. This process has saved BCPS $45 million in allocated resources that have been returned to the classroom while reducing our administrative workload by 75 percent. It should be noted that BCPS, Saint Mary’s County Public Schools, Caroline County Public Schools, and now Howard County Public School, and Harford County Public Schools have adopted EMS Solutions as their primary means of ordering goods for their schools. Since implementing eProcurement as their main ordering process these LEA’s have seen similar results in reducing their administrative costs and processing time.

This "shopping" platform allows the user to click directly from a workstation into our electronic catalogs and see our agreed-upon BCPS pricing that, depending on the item, can be at a 63 to 75 percent discount off catalog price. They can shop and place orders using a purchase order, purchasing card or individual credit card. The successful use of this program will allow our schools to return valuable resources to the classroom. The ASBO MD & DC on-line electronic procurement platform saves everyone time and effort because schools are able to order what they need, when they need it. Delivery of supplies can and normally does occur within 24 to 96 hours and the vendors receive their payments within 24 to 48 hours after shipping. Our on-line electronic procurement platform has reduced shipping costs from an average of 12 to 15 percent to between 4 to 7 percent, currently.

When using our ASBO MD & DC on-line electronic procurement platform, you have access to over 35 on-line electronic catalogues with over 450,000 line items from nationally bid contracts such as Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, Corporate Express, School Specialty, Lakeshore Learning, Fry Scientific, Fisher Scientific, Sax Arts & Crafts, Dick Blick Art Supplies, BSN Sports, SportsTime, Abilitations, Childcraft, athletic supplies, math & science supplies, art photo, audiovisual, family studies, athletics, football, music vocal, music instruments, physical education, unique office supplies, technology education, medical and first aid supplies, library media, computers, software, and copiers.

Rick Gay, CPPO, RSBO

Purchasing Manager | Baltimore County Public Schools

6901 N. Charles Street | Towson, MD | 21204

Work: 410-887-7820/4334 | Fax: 410-887-7831 | Cell: 443-801-2502

Check out our website at www.bcps.org/offices/purchasing